284 Greek Verbal Roots in English. 
given any reasons for his suspicion. ‘The line which he quotes 
from me thus in parenthesis, could have weighed nothing with 
him, (“‘under the lateral line, a series of white circular spots,” 
Storer,) because this appearance exists also in the foreign fish. 
Thus Yarrell, in his description of this species, says, “the upper 
part of the head, body, and fins, slate gray ; under parts yellow- 
ish white; young specimens generally exhibit a few white spots.” 
2d edit. Vol. II, p. 526. I stated the specimen which I describ- 
ed to be ‘‘thirty four inches in length”—you perceive it was an 
immature fish. 
Had not these remarks become already so protracted, I should 
have made a few observations upon the Scopelus Humboldtii, 
Ammodytes Americanus? Hippocampus Hudsonius? and others. 
I hope that some ichthyologist possessing the leisure, will furnish 
amore extended notice of the volume I have thus cursorily exam- 
ined. 
It is to be regretted that Dr. Dekay should have studiously 
neglected the labors of Rafinesque. With all his eccentricities, 
and want of method and frequent want of accuracy, there is 
much worthy of commendation in his “Ichthyologia Ohioensis” 
—much which should claim the grateful remembrance, at least, 
of American ichthyologists. 
Art. VIII.—On Greek Verbal Roots in English; by Prof. J. W. Grsss. 
GREEK verbal roots are liable to various changes or modifications, 
which disguise them more or less to the English eye, and prevent the 
full appreciation of the meaning of many important terms. Among 
these are some employed in natural science. 
Modern philologists have attempted with great labor to classify these 
changes or reduce them to general principles, and to give a philosoph- 
ical account of their origin. We propose to give their results so far 
as the Enolish language is concerned. 
I. The following are euphonic processes, having for their object 
merely to relieve the organs of speech, or to please the ear. 
1. The radical vowel a is sometimes changed into e. ‘This is effect- 
ed by attenuation or precession of vowel sound. See Prof. A. Crosby: 
Greek Gram. § 29. Examples will occur as we proceed. 
2. The radical letters, particularly a vowel and liquid, are some- 
times transposed ; as, dragon for dracon, ‘ sharp-sighted,’ from a/darc, 
